The present invention relates generally to multi-pen printers, and, more specifically, to alignment of staggered pens in multi-pen printers.
Printers with multiple printheads, or pens, such as ink jet printers, for example, have historically had aligned pens. In this context, aligned means that the pens are substantially aligned in scan axis. A scan axis is the path along which the pens, typically transported by a carriage, may travel when the printer is in operation. In such printers, aligning the printheads, or, more specifically, aligning what the pens print on a media is typically accomplished by using one pen as a reference and then aligning the other pens to that reference.
One advance in print technology is the use of staggered pens. Printers with staggered pens may have certain advantages over printers with non-staggered pens, such as improved print quality and/or improved print speed. However, conventional methods for aligning pens in printers with staggered pens may have certain disadvantages. For example, using one pen as a reference and aligning the other pens to that reference may introduce undesired errors into alignment of such pens due to, for example, media advance errors or media path skew. Therefore, alternative approaches for aligning staggered pens in multi-pen printers are desirable.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, a method of aligning plural staggered pens in a printer with a first pen and a second pen of the plural pens defining a macro-pen, the first and second pens being staggered, the method includes aligning the first and second pens of the macro-pen and aligning a third pen with the macro-pen.